


Thank You For Making My Dreams Come Not Quite True

by bluecrownedmotmot



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Backstory, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 18:44:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6482737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecrownedmotmot/pseuds/bluecrownedmotmot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What we didn't see. Mettaton awakes as EX for the first time, but the process does not go as Alphys hoped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thank You For Making My Dreams Come Not Quite True

It was, at long last, time to introduce Mettaton to his true form. Alphys had nagging concerns about EX, but she quelled them. Mettaton had not had a positive conversation with her in months. He was staying at his resort just to avoid seeing her. She was terrified of losing her friendship with him and even more terrified that it was already too late. What was worse, he knew all of her secrets... She just had to give him some good news.

 

When she invited him over, he was excited and bubbly. Just like old times. After being welcomed inside, he could hardly settle down for her to get to work transferring his body and soul into EX. It took hours. He would be able to switch between box and EX forms when she was finished, but since he had bonded to his box body first, she had to be careful during this procedure.

 

Finally, she was done. Her work bench was strewn with tube sections, nuts, and wire, saturated with oil... But she was done. She wiped her brow. Mettaton opened his humanoid eyes for the first time ever. He blinked and acclimated himself to the new visual system.

“Hi, Mettaton.”

He experimentally took a breath. He didn't need to breathe, but she had constructed him so that he'd speak essentially the same way a human did. The speaker on his chest was built-in so that he could perform on stage without needing a mic, but his everyday voice would be produced by air passing through synthetic vocal cords. He had wanted a normal sounding speaking and singing voice, after all.

“Heeeeeeeello, Aaaaalphysssss,” he said silkily. “Oh, my. I sound sssssexy. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.” He struggled to figure out forming a plosive 'p' sound with his new lips, but nailed it on the last attempt. “It's not too hard to talk like this, is it?”

“Just practice a little, but you've got a good ear. Can you move your fingers? Toes? Can you feel this?”

“Yes, yes, ouch, why are you pricking my foot?”

“Sorry, I need to make sure your sensory system works. You can get down in a second.” She poked and prodded him. “Okay, all clear.” She moved out of his way.

 

Mettaton leaped to his feet.. And fell flat on his face. His legs buckled instantly.

 

“Oh my god. Mettaton?”

Mettaton's arms twitched uselessly. Alphys flipped him onto his back.

“I'm alright,” he said softly, sounding like he was about to cry. Despite how awful he had been lately, this broke Alphys' heart.

“W-what... What's wrong? I just c-checked your extremities.”

Mettaton turned his head. “I don't think anything's wrong, darling. I just... Can't coordinate this body. It's really complicated.”

“Oh no,” said Alphys.

 

They were silent for a while, until Mettaton couldn't stand it anymore. He sobbed bitterly.

 

“I- I- I...” Realization dawned on Alphys. “I wanted you to be able to move like a human, because that's what _you_ really wanted but maybe I made everything too complex for you to learn? There's a ton of hydraulics and pistons and you have to balance them all to be able to even stand. I can't do anything right, can I?” Tears slid down her snout. “You're going to be stuck using the box body. This is all my fault. I should have never told you I could do this; at least then you'd still be a ghost and maybe someday someone more competent than me could have made-”

“Alphys. Shut. Up,” interrupted Mettaton.

Alphys weeped quietly, pulling the bottom of her lab coat up to her eyes.

 

Mettaton concentrated on how his body felt. He was _not_ going to get this close to being in a body that felt so _right_ and just let himself be useless. Minutes passed. Alphys was so caught up in her grief that she didn't notice Mettaton's attempts to move, until one arm had tentatively, awkwardly snaked around her. The arms, at least, were not much different than his box arms, he realized. It was just the sensory input from everything else that made it hard to move them efficiently.

 

“Alphys. Don't corporeal beings have to _learn_ how to walk? Doesn't it take practice? I have all the time in the world, darling. I'll just figure it out.”

She blinked at him. “Y-yeah, maybe. Maybe you need to establish pathways... It's really your mind that does the work so... Oh, maybe you're right. I hope so, or else I'll just-”

“Stop crying and let me try things until I run out of charge.”

“But I ha-”

“Alphys,” snapped Mettaton, feeling terrible about the acerbic words that he couldn't stop from coming out of his mouth, saying them anyway. “I can't listen to you feel sorry for yourself right now. _I'm_ the one with the real problems. Go the fuck downstairs and spend some time with the monsters whose lives you _actually_ ruined. I'm going to figure this out. If I have a couple hours of battery, just come up and plug me back in. Don't you dare bother me with your shit before that.”

Alphys gave him a last wounded glance and fled to the basement.

 

He honestly had a hard time feeling sorry for her right now.

 

He channeled his anger into playing with his new form. He pointed his toes, flexed his feet. Watched carefully what this looked like. Did it again without watching. Purposely banged his feet against the floor. Ow. Tried to push himself to a seated position with his arms. Struggled. Maybe he was going about it wrong. What did people with bodies _do_ when they got up from the floor? He tried something different and gradually succeeded.

He was grateful he had watched all the human movies he could get his hands on. He had imagined dancing in a human body as a ghost, thought about every little movement. His obsessions were actually useful now. This was harder than he ever expected, but he felt elated.

 

 _I've spent my whole life preparing for this,_ he thought. _This is nothing. I can do this. I had to work hard to become a star, and now I'll have to work hard again. Bring. It. On._

 

Alphys crept upstairs, anticipating having to face Mettaton sprawled on the floor, even angrier at her. She was shocked to find him standing.

 

“Look, dear!” He carefully stood on one leg, used his arms for balance, wobbled but remained upright, and gently returned his heeled foot to the ground. He smiled radiantly. “It took me the entire two hours to get up and balance, but I think I'm getting the hang of it!”

And with that he fainted, drained of battery.

 

When Mettaton awoke, he was back in his box form, charging. Alphys looked much better. He didn't feel like apologizing to her, but he was no longer angry.

“H-hi there. Priority number one is improving your energy efficiency. Okay? You can remain in this form and I'll work on that. Whenever you're fully charged up, you can switch to EX and practice moving... I'm really sorry, Mettaton. I thought this would be a seamless transition.”

“Fine. It's fine. I'm not worried,” replied Mettaton brusquely. He was in reality a bit worried that he'd never figure out how to dance or move smoothly, but he couldn't weigh himself down with negativity.

“I don't blame you if you hate me,” Alphys said, her voice uncharacteristically deadened.

 

Mettaton thought about this. His nastiness had really hurt her. She had probably spent the entire time torturing herself down there, maybe crying along with Snowdrake's mother or writing pathetic entries in her lab notebook while halfheartedly playing fetch with Endogeny. Did he really hate her? No. He didn't even think the situation with the amalgamates was her fault, yet it was a great way to twist the knife when he wanted to do so.

“Look, while you were down in the lab, after I had calmed myself... I really felt, for the first time ever, in my entire life, like I belonged in the form I had. That's huge. You can't even imagine. Don't tell me that someone more competent could have come along eventually and done that for me. Only you could have, sweetheart. You didn't judge me for anything I told you I needed. You built a complicated thing no one else could have and it's just... Perfect. Completely perfect. It hardly matters, even if I never figure it out. Even if the energy usage never gets optimized. It's _me._ ”

“Oh!” hiccuped Alphys. “I- I didn't realize you liked it, despite...”

“I love it so, so much.”

 

***

 

Over weeks and months, Mettaton continued to practice. He crawled, and then walked, and then skipped. His balance got better and better. He could bend over backwards. He learned to pirouette and leap.

 

Alphys took him to Undyne's house and he lounged on the piano. That was when she realized he had done it. He looked so completely convincing, fake-eating grapes, twirling his toes in the air, regaling them with his melodious voice. He moved like the body had always been his.

 

On the other hand, her progress was slow. She couldn't figure out how to make the battery life much better. There were small improvements, and she felt like she was close, but it just wasn't enough for him to inhabit the form full time.

 

***

 

Mettaton had come over her house and was dancing around the floor. At first, she watched, happy to see him clearly enjoying himself so much. He was taken with everything his beautiful legs could do. He cartwheeled, he sunk to his knees and rose again, he kicked. It was amazing what he had accomplished.

 

But then she remembered that, because of her, he'd soon have to go back to his other form.

 

She slunk down to the basement, to the room with the DT-extractor and slumped against the wall, her clawed hands holding her face. Lemon Bread, curious, came over to gnash her teeth near Alphys' ear and then glided off and went back to sulking in the corner.

 

After a while, Alphys heard the click of heels on the tile. Mettaton wasn't fond of the True Lab, so she knew he must be frustrated to have sought her out here. She looked up. He was standing with his hand on his hip. The DT-extractor loomed shadowy behind him in the dim light.

“I want more battery life, Alphys.”

“I know.”

“When?! When can I stay like this, Alphys?”

“Mettaton, I'm trying...”

“Bull-SHIT, you were watching anime last night instead of working.”

“I need to take a break sometimes!”

“I didn't need breaks. I have put in far more productive time than you have. You're just lazy.”

“No, I want to make you happy...”

“You probably know what to do and you want me dependent on you,” Mettaton spat. “You want me to be miserable. You're a terrible person.”

“I really... I can't... P-please don't. When you say these things, I really can't think, I feel so bad...”

“I don't care.”

He turned back into his box form and sped away, leaving her. Lemon Bread made an agonized screech from her corner. Alphys knew just how the amalgamate felt right now. Alone.

 

***

 

Days later, something happened. Alphys called Mettaton, after staring at the phone for a prolonged period of time. Who else could she ask? No-one. She was afraid he wouldn't pick up, but he did.

“Mettaton, I know you don't want to hear from me right now.”

“You got that right.”

“But... I did make your body. Could you do me a favor? If _we_ can't be friends, maybe you can help me make a new one.”

“And why do you need my help?”

“There's a human in the Underground.”

He was silent. He had longed to meet a human. This could be interesting.

She continued. “If you help me out... I'll complete your body. You can still go back to box form when you'd like, but EX will be stable enough to run all day. I know what to do now, if I just make a few adjustments.”

“...I'm listening,” he replied.

**Author's Note:**

> Edit 3 Sept 2016 - Finally got around to cleaning up minor errors and formatting things on this one. Green means clean.
> 
> http://motmotfluttersforth.tumblr.com/


End file.
